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After 3 years of trial and error, I’ve found some of the best screen-free toys for kids! Minimizing TV time is hard, but these toys help.
As a WAHM to a 3 and 1 year old, having precious time to myself is rare. I used to think letting my toddler watch “educational” TV was good for both of us, but I quickly realized it actually made my life harder when we went to do anything else. Big time melt downs happened and it would take forever to get back to her normal mood.
I decided to phase out TV as much as possible, but I needed some good distractions to help the transition. My big requirements for the screen-free toys were open-ended play and multi-use. Just because we weren’t watching TV anymore didn’t mean I wanted 4782932 toys in the house. This was not an overnight success, either. It took a fair amount of demonstrating and leading by example. I *also* had to give up TV (🥲) and had to show that I had lots of other options to “fill my time” with.
Indoor Screen-free toys
- Building Blocks – We got our oldest these when she was 1ish, and upgraded to these when she was a little older. She still regularly plays with both and now my 1 year old is obsessed with the silicone ones! We love a multi-kid toy.
- Kinetic Sand – y’all. I LOVE this stuff. Don’t get me wrong – it is my anxiety’s arch nemesis. But my daughter loves it and it feels so fun squishing through your hands. This one took some serious teaching to get he to keep it contained, but she’s much better now and this will keep her happy for sometimes an hour+. Huge win, and well worth the extra vacuuming.
- Ice Cream Cart – So this was gifted to my oldest for her 3rd birthday and at first I was like, “hard no.” But I let her give it a whirl and it is so cool! The scoop recognizes the different ice cream flavors and interacts with her while she plays! My 1 year old likes carting it around (it plays music when you roll it) and throwing the pieces absolutely everywhere 🙂
- Cash Register – My aesthetic loving heart hates all these colorful toys, but this one is another *huge* win. The scanner actually scans things (doesn’t have to have a barcode!!!!!) and blurts out random prices. The keypad doubles as a calculator, and the microphone actually works! I taught my oldest to say “clean up on aisle 4” all garbled and close to the mic, just like in the grocery stores.
- Drawing Pad – We bought this for our first flight with our daughter and it is still a staple toy almost 2 years later! She has really gotten good at copying what we draw and the erase button is excellent. It looks like a tablet, but rest assured, it is not.
- Easel – This is another amazing toy. It really lets my girls explore scale and color while drawing, and having the roll of paper overhead is great for quick resets.
- Water Pens – Wow. My oldest received one of these witchcraft pads as a gift and we didn’t realize it was reusable. She colored everything in and we were shook when it dried and disappeared! Seriously fun. We have like 10 different themed pads and she uses all of them all the time.
- Toy Instruments – These are a love/hate toy. My kids love them, I mostly hate them. We have a xylophone and a piano. I learned jingle bells and twinkle twinkle, much to my daughters delight… I can’t be too mad at that.
- Play Laptop – Ok look. This “simulates” a screen, but its literally a little cardboard insert with pictures that look like email, shopping, etc. The keyboard makes little typing noises and it plays music. My daughter LOVES it because she sees me working on mine and can copy me.
- Cleaning Toys – Idk, I kinda thought these were a cop out “toy” but my kids love them! The walk around the house “dusting” and “sweeping” and its so cute.
- Yoto player – I LOVE THIS TOY!!!!! I can not say enough amazing things about it. I should probably write a whole blog post about how life changing it is. We got it for my 3 year old for Christmas and she listens to it every. single. day. She stopped napping last summer and this has revolutionized her “quiet time”. The yoto cards have endless variety and she has learned so much from them. Our favorite cards are this, this, and this.
Outdoor Screen-Free Toys
- Playhouse – We love this. It was pretty easy to build and keeps the girls happy for hours! It had endless potential for customization and is designed to withstand the elements.
- Water Table – I got this during the p*ndemic to spare our sanity and its still in heavy rotation during the summer. The older the girls get, the more they can actually interact with the table. Its fun to watch them and gets me precious hands free time!
- Splash Pad – Maybe the best $20 I’ve ever spent? We got this on a whim (again, p*ndemic crazies) and while I wish there was a warm water option, its so fun to jump through the little streams and splash in the tiny pool.
- Bounce House – Ok I never thought I’d be one of *those* parents that had something like this but…. zero regrets. My 3 year old is obsessed!!! She would live in it if I let her. Well worth the effort of lugging it outside.
- Bubble Lawn Mower – Did you know bubbles are the equivalent of little kid crack? This is hilarious and we even use it indoors (minus the bubbles) for endless fun.
Get out your wallets
I hope some of these toys inspire you to break the trance of screen time! It made such a difference in my girls, and while it feels like a personal attack not being able to watch TV myself, its worth it to see them use their creativity and bring new life to these toys.
